My wife is a US citizen. I am a lawyer in the UK. Its not hugely transferable and I don't love it so I am going to change career in the States.

I am not driven by careers and all I want to do in Colorado is climb and enjoy the outdoors. It is our main motivation for living there. My questions are as follows:

1. How long does it take for me to get a green card and I can I apply now?

Depends on where your USC wife is currently living. YOU do not apply for anything. She applies for you. The timeline ranges from 6 to 10 months.

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2. How can I find info about becoming a teacher in the states as this is something I am considering. I assume like the UK you gets tonnes of vacation leave (to go climbing of course).

If you are lucky and get a job (which isn't all that easy to get these days) you might start with one week's vacation after a year of working.

You should do a little research. Attorneys here in the US are well versed in researching assume those in the UK are as well. Teaching qualifications vary from state to state and institution to institution, i.e. public school, private school, university, city college, etc.

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3. I assume, being risk averse, we can just move there and see what we can do for work?

Thanks very much

Paul

Not sure what you are saying, thinking? You can't just move here. You need a visa to do that. Your employment opportunities do not factor into your immigration at any point.

My wife is a US citizen. I am a lawyer in the UK. Its not hugely transferable and I don't love it so I am going to change career in the States.

I am not driven by careers and all I want to do in Colorado is climb and enjoy the outdoors. It is our main motivation for living there. My questions are as follows:

1. How long does it take for me to get a green card and I can I apply now?

2. How can I find info about becoming a teacher in the states as this is something I am considering. I assume like the UK you gets tonnes of vacation leave (to go climbing of course).

3. I assume, being risk averse, we can just move there and see what we can do for work?

Thanks very much

Paul

Paul, you will need the correct visa to move to the US, nothing is automatic just because you are married to a US citizen although you have a direct route for your application.

Please visit the Marriage Based Visas forum here and look for the pinned article about "DCF" which will explain how you go about getting your visa from the UK. Expect the process to take 4-6 months before you can move.

Please keep your visa questions there and use this forum for 'lifestyle' questions like work, taxes etc.

There are many recent threads here about teaching and transferring your qualifications. You might be surprised that there are not a lot of general teaching jobs going at the moment and that holiday time is quite different in the US than the UK.

Teachers, sure they get holidays off when there are school holidays, but they often have teacher conferences, training and other stuff during those "holidays" so they aren't all pure holidays, plus you either aren't being paid during those holidays, or you get smaller pay cheques averaged out over 12 months.

You don't say what level of teaching you're interesting in, but you'd be starting from scratch and considering how many teachers are being laid off, people who already have a lot of experience, you could find it very tough to get a job, unless it's in a very undesirable location or a subject with teacher shortages.

As your OH is a USC, presuming she's been filing her taxes with the IRS all this time? If not, there's plenty of info on the boards, but also a good wiki that'll go over getting a SSN if she doesn't already have one, filing back taxes, the visa process and all that fun stuff.

Thanks everyone, as we are now keeping the discussion to teaching and Colorado,

I dont think I need to worry about the job market right now, as I would be doing my teaching qualification in the states first of all. I will also be working here in London for at least another 2 years to save up as big a hose deposit as I can.

Interesting that teachers get laid off in the states, I dont think that ever happens here. However, what is considered an undesirable location and therefore more likely to have jobs? We'd be looking at somewhere remote as we're climbers, in western Colorado. I'm sure you guys are aware of what happens in Ouray on a yearly basis. I wonder if Utah would be in less popular still?

Call me an optimist but I've always felt that with sufficient drive and ambition you can do ok anywhere, escpecially if your career goals are modest as mine are.

Just be aware that Colorado is full of teachers looking to support their skiing, climbing, and mountain biking habits. You'd probably have more luck in eastern Colorado, but the climbing isn't so good that way, right?

My wife is a US citizen. I am a lawyer in the UK. Its not hugely transferable and I don't love it so I am going to change career in the States.

I am not driven by careers and all I want to do in Colorado is climb and enjoy the outdoors. It is our main motivation for living there. My questions are as follows:

1. How long does it take for me to get a green card and I can I apply now?

2. How can I find info about becoming a teacher in the states as this is something I am considering. I assume like the UK you gets tonnes of vacation leave (to go climbing of course).
3. I assume, being risk averse, we can just move there and see what we can do for work?

Thanks very much

Paul

I don't think teaching credentials are required for most universities in the US. My son has taught at NYIT and the University of Minnesota (both were only for a few semesters) and his wife has taught full time at Parsons College for the past 3 years. Neither has teaching credentials and I suspect that universities are primarily looking for professors with certain knowledge that have a masters or PHD degree.

However if you want to teach in grades 1-12, most states require teaching credentials.